"Well, I would never bet against you so…" Sirius waved his hand majestically at Remus, "moving on, I stupidly give up Harry to Hagrid, get framed by the rat and hoisted off to Azkaban."
"And Albus places Harry with his aunt, his closest living relative." Remus shuddered.
"And the closest blood relative." Sirius added thoughtfully. "You know Lily placed blood wards on her sister's muggle house – said after the attack on her parents that she wasn't taking any chances with what little family she had left whether her sister wanted the protection or not."
"Really?" Remus blinked. "You're thinking something which is usually not a good thing." He prompted when Sirius remained silent.
"What if Dumbledore examined Harry and realised there was a protection based on blood surrounding him and got the wrong idea?" Sirius posited. "What if he assumed the blood wards around Petunia's house had been placed there for Harry in case something happened to Lily? An extension of the protection she'd already placed on him?"
"Magically it would work," Remus said, turning over the idea in his head, "Lily's blood in both wards…both protective in nature…possibly Harry residing within the house enabled the blood ward around it to be maintained otherwise it would have needed Lily renewing the protection every year. It's entirely possible that the Dursley house is the safest place for Harry from a magical perspective."
"Well, bugger that." Sirius said forcefully. "It obviously isn't the safest place for Harry from every other perspective."
"Agreed," Remus said. He narrowed his eyes as Sirius pointed his wand at the blackboard. 'Review wards' appeared.
Sirius got to his feet, restless again. "Where were we on our recap?"
"Albus placed Harry with Petunia…"
"And left him in exile in the muggle world for ten long years." Sirius shook his head. "I don't think I'm going to forgive him for that."
"I'm not sure I'm in a mood to forgive him either." Remus muttered. He pushed himself out of the chair and walked over to the blackboard. "Harry turns eleven, gets his Hogwarts letter and Hagrid reintroduces him to the wizarding world."
"Badly."
"Quite." Remus said. He added a section to the plan entitled 'Education' and wrote another item to the growing list: 'teach Harry wizarding culture, etiquette and his heritage.' He cleared his throat. "Harry goes to Hogwarts where Albus tests him to find out more about how Harry survived the Killing Curse and wrongly assumes it is down to Lily's protection rather than any outstanding ability on Harry's part." Another item appeared under 'Protecting Harry:' 'research Lily's spell.'
"Harry defeats Voldepants again," Sirius added, "and Dumbledore gets his proof that Voldemort is alive in some form." He walked up and tapped the horcrux section. "And we know why."
"Although probably at that point in the timeline, Albus doesn't as there are a number of dark rituals that could have anchored Voldemort to this plane." Remus murmured. "No, Albus doesn't find out until Harry's second year when Harry destroys the diary horcrux." He sighed. "It's possible Albus is out searching for others."
Sirius shrugged. "If he is he's not made much progress. I have the benefit of Reg's note so have an idea of the number. I have the locket horcrux and can get my hands on the cup one if I seize the LeStrange vault. We'll need help to find out how to dispose of them and track down the three missing ones but I'll be damned if I'm going to Dumbledore."
"You don't know how to dispose of them?"
"I know how to create a horcrux – that was part of the Advanced section in Dark Arts my father made me learn, but disposing of them…no. I guess I can ask Harry how he did it."
"The Unspeakables might know." Remus offered. "You have 'conquer the Ministry' under your 'Take Over the World' section. It wouldn't hurt to use them nor the DMLE come to that – they should be informed that Voldemort is still a viable threat and I suspect Albus hasn't said anything to them."
"Let's come back to that." Sirius said briskly, twirling his wand, "OK, so after Harry's second year, Albus knows how Voldemort stayed alive-ish. Then I realise Peter is at Hogwarts and, well, we know what happened next; I ended up having to be rescued by Harry and escaping on a hippogriff."
Remus patted his shoulder. "But you've stayed, Sirius. You haven't allowed Albus to run you off again." He pointed at the blackboard. "This needs some work but it's a solid plan to get Harry away from the Dursleys and try to protect him in the future." He turned to his friend, determination shining in his eyes. "I'm not going to let Albus run me off either. Whatever you need, Padfoot; I'm in."